| Volume 39 Issue 10 | June 2000 |
| Volume 39 Issue 10 | June 2000 |
One of the things I was concerned about when I took over as Super was that my work schedule can be a little unpredictable - especially when it comes to having to take the occasional (or not-so-occasional) trip out of town. Sure enough, my *very first* meeting as super, I was in Huntsville, Alabama! My thanks to Brian for taking over the meeting!
Division 3 only had a few members at the Medina MCR Regional Convention, but those who went had a great time. Ron Dietrich and Phyllis Smith represented us in the contest room, with Ron taking first in Off-line Display and Steam Locomotive categories and the Chester Muszalaski Steam Engine Award; Phyllis won the non-rail craft with an exquisite Raggety Ann doll. Congratulations to both Ron and Phyllis!
At our regular meeting, Gerry Erickson provided a top-notch clinic on the C&O in May. He’s called me several times about ideas he has for the clinics. In his words, “Do you mind if we do something besides HO?” My answer was, “Of course not!” The NMRA is for all scales, not just HO, and Gerry is working to make certain that this happens.
I talked a little last month about the need to attract new members to the NMRA. That primarily concentrated on publicity - how to let prospective members know that we are here. Once we get them in the door, however, we need to keep their attention. For that matter, we need to keep the attention of those who are already members.
That’s not an easy task. There are lots of other drains on our time, and we all need to make the monthly value judgement of whether to attend the Division 3 meeting, or do one of the myriad other things which are equally worthy. The other problem is that there is no such thing as the ‘one-size-satisfies-all’ clinic. We all have different interests, and have different things that we’re trying to get out of the hobby.
The other major factor that is going to affect how we schedule a program is how advanced the modeler is. For a new modeler, a clinic on installing Kaydee couplers and bringing Athearn freight cars up to spec may be of extreme importance; for most of our members, though, this would be incredibly boring - we’ve done this hundreds, if not thousands, of times before. For an advanced modeler, a slide show describing variations on PS-1 boxcars might be just the ticket, but I guarantee you that the eyes of the new modeler will glaze over before you hit the fourth slide.
So now our problem is to address differing interests, with differing levels of modeling skill. You can’t really find a ‘universal’ interest, and targeting one skill level will bore the other skill level. It is not an easy task, as I have worked this problem as program chair for the last four years.
One of the things I tried to do was to provide clinics which would be interesting to a wide range interests, both modeling and prototype. The clinic schedule for the last several years has been based on results of a survey that we did in 1996. We got back almost fifty responses out of about 400 mailed, and we’ve hit nearly every topic which had a response rate of over 20 percent. We’ve tried to have three or four every year with a high interest response (over 50 percent), and filled in with the rest.
As I continue to consider the problem, I am coming to the conclusion that we really need to have two programs - one that is targeted at less experienced modelers and one to satisfy the more advanced modeler. To do any less short-changes our membership.
What I propose is that we generally have two clinics at each of our meetings. One will be specifically targeted at model railroading basics - assembling an Athearn boxcar, installing Kaydee trucks on N scale equipment, doing rock castings, and so on. This clinic should be limited in scope and short - say a half hour. Most of us can give these clinics - and by writing up a one-sheet description of the clinic and handing it out at the meeting, you can get Author AP points. Passing on the knowledge is part of the hobby - where would we be now without our mentors?
The second clinic would be more along the lines of what we’ve become acustomed to - prototype slide shows, scratchbuilding techniques, layout design and operation, and so on. I expect that a new survey will be done fairly soon, to gauge where we are and where we need to go with these topics.
As always, though - this is your Division. The Board of Governors is just the caretaker. Let us know what direction you want to take, and we’ll do our best to get the signals aligned so we have a clear track the whole way down the line!
Happy Modeling!
Ray
© 1999, 2000 Division 3, MCR, NMRA